Kenneth W. Mentor, J.D., Ph.D.

"Brag
Like Your Mother Would. You need to tell your own story. Tell how
wonderful and significant your work is. If you don’t say it,
no one will hear it, so don’t
be afraid to brag. This is not the time to be humble or shy."

This
advice is offered by Sherril
Gelmon and Susan Agre-Kippenhan in "Promotion, Tenure, and the
Engaged Scholar: Keeping the Scholarship of Engagement in the Review
Process,"
(January
2002 AAHE Bulletin).

Following
this advice, I have created this site as an online portfolio that
organizes much of my scholarly work in one place. Let me say right
up front that
this is a bit of a leap for me. The idea of registering my own name
as a domain seemed less than modest, and I am still not totally comfortable with the
idea,
but I understand the benefits of this approach.

Essays,
working papers, web sites, course outlines, shared learning objects,
and other web-based
scholarship are included in this site.
A tendency to
"think out of the box" leads me to question the value of
limiting access to knowledge by claiming it as "intellectual
property." Unless otherwise
restricted, everything published at kenmentor.com and each of my other
sites is available under the limitations of the Creative Commons license.

As
scholars, we all gain by sharing new ideas and approaches. This
does not happen when scholarship is hidden. Unfortunately, we often restrict access to web-based scholarship. We keep these materials private
in the hope of finding a traditional publishing outlet. Ironically,
even then our work remains hidden from the majority who do not
have access to academic journals. Our reliance on an outdated model
of scholarship, which is forced on educators through an equally
outdated tenure process, prevents us from fully realizing the potential
of the Internet as a place for research, teaching, service, and other forms of scholarship.

As
an academic, peer review is very important. I
welcome your comments. In fact, I need your comments if I am to continue
this process of intellectual growth. Feel free to adopt and modify
my course materials. All I ask is that you
let
me
know that these materials have value to you, as an academic peer. Please
let me know when you see ways to improve my work. Ideally, educators
will adopt content on this and my other sites, make improvements, and return the
improved materials to the public domain.

Thank
you for visiting this site. I hope the content is stimulating, educational,
and of value to you and your students.